An apparatus (180) for managing media approval messages in an advertising system (100) includes an approval module (182) that stores information identifying approvers for a piece of media content. A message module (185) routes a first message seeking an approval decision for media content to at least one approver in accordance with the media content sought to be approved. A rules-based module (184) prescribes routing of at least one second message launched by the message module to at least one recipient depending on the action taken by an initial approver for a particular advertisement.